Articles

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and other Massachusetts political heavyweights joined hundreds of IBEW members on the state’s South Coast May 12 to rally against the outsourcing of more than 150 local jobs to Mexico.

The IBEW has worked successfully with Jobs to Move America to ensure public transportation projects create good paying jobs for working families in the communities they serve. The next success story might be in New York.

Trains, trolleys and legendary sleeping cars rolled out of the Pullman Company’s Chicago factory for a century until it was shuttered in 1981. Its demise signified the end of railcar production in the United States.

It’s not every day that two locals from two different states help secure a new business contract for their employers – and one that leads to increased membership – but that’s what happened for Chelsea, Mass., Local 1499 and Milwaukee, Wis., Local 2150. And it’s in part because of the Code of Excellence.

The Obama administration finally released the full text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement on Nov. 5, officially kicking off the battle within his own party as he seeks congressional approval for the deal.

After two weeks on strike, Ohio IBEW members working for Schneider Electric approved a new contract Oct. 19 that locks in higher wages for veteran workers and improved compensation for newer, lower paid employees.

At Sacramento-based company Sunoptics, employees craft products that are ahead of their time – high-tech skylights that can help replace most electric lighting with natural sunlight for offices and homes.

NASA is betting nearly $8 billion on the skill and competence of nearly 250 members of Baltimore Local 1501, the engineers and technicians working on the James Webb Space Telescope at the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Counterfeiting. It's a crime as old as money itself. In Colonial America, currency sometimes carried the warning, "to counterfeit is death." The death sentence no longer is in effect for passing fake currency. But serious injury or death could still be the penalty for IBEW electricians and others who inadvertently install or depend upon counterfeit circuit breakers and other electrical equipment.

Malta, N.Y., is perhaps best known as the lifelong home of George Crum, the inventor of the potato chip. With streets of modest homes beneath mature oak and maple trees, the small Hudson Valley town of 13,000 doesn't look like it would also be the site of one of the largest construction projects in the United States. - See more at: http://www.ibew.org/articles/14ElectricalWorker/EW1406/LittleChips.0614.html#sthash.VR8bDy8d.dpuf

Some of the biggest items found on the new IBEW-Made website are the two-story tall transformers made by SPX Transformer Solutions Inc., formerly Waukesha Electric Systems. The transformers, which range from 2.5-2,000 megawatts, are produced by members of Milwaukee Local 2150.

Sad news out of Milwaukee. Spanish train-maker Talgo is vacating its factory in the city, four years after Gov. Scott Walker rejected millions in federal stimulus money to create a Milwaukee-to-Madison commuter line.